Posting here because my question is similar. Do any of the serious players here think that the scene will exist/flourish in the future?
I get the feeling it's going to kind of stagnate and truck along for a while. So I think it'll still exist but flourish may be a strong word to use. Part of that is due to lack of basic features like spectate (especially spectate tbh).
As for the competitive scene, this topic is kind of old, but check the tournament listings for tournaments. I run SCL and we don't plan on going anywhere for a while. There was a list of popular tournaments posted above which included most of the standard ones minus calamari cup, and there are some recurring options that do weird rulesets like S&F tournaments (Scarth and Fat)
Early on there were a lot more tournament options than there are now. Basically the primary ones that exist today just did a better job than the ones that failed, so players played in those and as a result they still exist. Every once in a while a new tournament crops up, but usually it isn't run super well. Surf & Turf was new and actually was run pretty well, so props to Latias for doing that, but IDK if an offering with turf war will stick around long.
Pretty much you play in SCL for a quickie but still competitive and fun tournament, you play in CC, IS, Messtival, and BB for your longer but less frequently offered more standard options (combined they're spaced out decently enough so that you have something standard to look forward to), and you join in tournaments like S&F or Surf + Turf for something a little different to break the monotony.